Presents for Africa

We leave on Tuesday morning for South Africa. I'd ordered lots of presents on amazon.com that were going to be shipped last Tuesday, but that then got delayed and they were only scheduled to be sent tomorrow! No good. So I cancelled the order and, being unable to find the gifts in town (I looked quite hard), I went out on a massive shopping spree yesterday. Thankfully, I was quite successful! I have one more present to buy, but I packed up the presents I had for everyone else yesterday and it was a lot of fun! Knowing that I would be devastated if the presents were in a piece of lost luggage, I'm seriously thinking about putting a lot of them in my hand luggage. Packing will start later today.

Anyway, I wanted to show off the fruits of my labors yesterday (see photo below). A note on "presents for Africa" to the non-South Africans who read this: saying "X for Africa" is a phrase meaning a lot of X (kind of like saying "enough food to feed an army"). Not included in the photo are photo albums I made (one for my grandmother, with Genevieve's wedding photos, and the other as a "brag book" (mostly of G's wedding) with copies of photos for those who want them) and some T-shirts (new) that G gave me to distribute to less wealthy people I come across in my travels. And before you think I'm strange for giving kitchen sponges to people, it seems that S. Africans quite like those sponges with a scrubber on one side. And note, too, that a lot of the "bigger" presents are at the back of the bags, hidden from view. They include Microplane graters for my aunts/uncles!

Well, that's all until I return, and I will post an itinerary and a link to my photos then. 

Opening ceremony of the Olympics

I only got to see part of the Parade of Nations of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics on TV the other night and I didn't find that very interesting. But, I saw still photos of other parts of the ceremony and realized that I must have missed something amazing. Thankfully, I found a video of the "pageantry" part on the NBC Olympics website. Under "NBC Encore" on the left menu, you can find the Opening Ceremony in three parts. I *highly* recommend watching part I--truly spectacular. I had no idea that humans could work that well together.

For Genevieve: on the same page, they also have a video of dressage for the 3-day event.

Enjoy!

Splint update

That monstrous splint I'm wearing on my leg when I sleep seems to be working--my foot is hurting less. Yay! The first two nights I wore it, I woke up probably 6 times though, needing to readjust my leg position. It still wakes me up sometimes, but it's much better. I took the splint to Seattle for Genevieve's wedding (see photos I took of the wedding weekend here, but don't look too soon 'cos I still have to edit (winnow and caption) the gallery), but I think it is too monstrous to take to South Africa (leaving 26 August!!) so will likely just take my old (smaller) splint.

Jesse has stopped wearing his medical shoe, but his foot still hurts. He also had big problems when he started wearing a different shoe (a hiking boot, so it is still stiff underneath) after 2 weeks in the medical shoe, because all his foot muscles and nerves had to wake up again... and they felt a bit weird for a while.

Anyway, thanks for your concern and pity for our patheticness.

Another tag--A to Z facts about me

Kirsty tagged me.

A. Attached or Single? Attached

B. Best Friend? Jesse (awwww!)

C. Cake or Pie? Cake, if I have to choose between those, but my favorite desserts starting with C are cobbler and creme brulee

D. Day of the week? Friday--now that I don't work on the weekend anymore (as I did in graduate school), I find my brain takes a few days (starting cold on Mondays) to get into it's most productive mode at work. By Friday, I often think I'm a genius. Mondays, I feel like my brain is pumping molasses. Also, I do somewhat look forward to the weekend, so that makes Fridays fun.

E. Essential Items? Crocs

F. Favorite Color? Blue for looking at, brown for wearing

G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Worms. But really neither, since I try to avoid eating gelatine. Favorite gummy candies are Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids and Jelly Tots (South African--thanks for reminding me of those Kirsty!)

H. Hometown? Johannesburg, South Africa

I. Indulgences? Sitting on the couch, surfing the Internet, good desserts

J. January or July? January--my birthday month. And July can be too hot (January can also be too cold, as I can attest from my years of living in Wisconsin)

K. Kids? Someday

L. Life isn't complete without? A good workout. And family.

M. Marriage Date? Never! Okay, maybe someday, in a judge's chambers or something. But probably just to take care of a health care issue.

N. Number of Brothers and Sisters? 1 sister

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples, though not as much as when I was a teenager (forget 1 a day... I was doing 3 a day or so), and oranges are gaining

P. Phobias or Fears? Human-made objects under water (including Kreepy-Kraulys--just looking for a photo of one freaked me out--and pipes) and natural objects under water that shouldn't be there--like whole trees, as I saw in the clear, clear water of Quetico when I went canoeing there a couple of years ago. FREAKY! I hyperventilate for the first 5 minutes of snorkeling. Then I start loving it (if there are pretty fish and none of the above objects).

Q. Quote: "Efficiency is intelligent laziness"--David Dunham; but just last night I saw this on a new facebook friend's page: "the best way to get something done is to begin" and I quite like that one too

R. Reasons to Smile: I have a good family

S. Superman or Wonder Woman: don't know enough to decide. I think I liked Wonder Woman when I was a kid though, so I'll go with her. Actually, when I was 6 and living in Athens, Georgia, I successfully blew all the seeds off a dandelion and wished I were Wonder Woman, but it didn't come true, so the next dandelion I tried, I wished it again but couldn't blow all the seeds off. When I told me mom about my wish not coming true, she told me that it was because I had tried again and failed. Or at least that's how I remember the story

T. Tag 5 people: you, you, you, you and you. I still don't think I even have 5 readers, and one of my readers is the person who tagged me :-)

U. Unknown Fact about Me? I have a mole shaped like a fried egg (with a "yolk" higher than the "whites") on my stomach

V. Vegetables? Oh yeah! Love them. I'm a subscriber of the Be Wise Ranch Community-Supporter Agriculture (CSA) program. Favorites are tomatoes (okay, that's a fruit, but whatever), chard, green (or purple or yellow) beans and potatoes (fried in oil, of course).

W. Worst Habit? Checking email frequently

X. X-ray or ultrasound? Never had an ultrasound. One time I had an X-ray, I got to lie on a mighty comfy camp mattress--and so I learned about Thermarest camping mattresses and went out and bought myself one for backpacking

Y. Your favorite food? No one favorite, but plenty of favorites: Twix, Creme brulee, Sunkist fruit gems, caprese salads (tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil), good baby potatoes (with oil-crisped skin), good cheese, South African-style fudge, cobbler crumb topping, good lentil soup, tempura vegetables, avocado sushi, pecans, dried fruit, Terra chips... I could go on and on

Z.Zodiac sign: Aquarius

Fun with splints

As I've mentioned before, I have plantar fasciitis (PF) in my right foot. I had a mild case in my left foot for a little while too, but the right foot is the main issue... the pain has been going on for two years now. Last fall, I went to a physical therapist (PT) about it, and she gave me some ideas, but it didn't help too much... the main thing was that I was supposed to stretch my calf muscles every 2 hours (or less!), and I found that my foot actually hurt more the more I stretched. After taking a long time off of running, I decided that sitting around getting fat while my foot remained unchanged wasn't cutting it, so I took up running again. I did it without first consulting my PT, but after the first couple of runs, I mentioned it to her and she told me that she knows another PT who had PF themself and who, after 6 months of resting with no improvement in their PF, started running and actually found that it helps. See, PF can lead to build up of scar tissue (or so I'm told) and running can cause it to break down (a good thing). So, I started running without guilt once a week... but after running, my foot would seize up and I'd limp for a little while. Also, the day after running, my foot would hurt more than it normally does. But, I was running!! Yay for running! After a while, I picked up the running to two days a week, then three. I've now been running at least three days a week for at least a month. I've lost a few pounds! Yay! My foot doesn't seize up after running! Yay! I've even started wearing shoes other than Crocs when I'm not in my running shoes (which I can only wear when running... my feet kill me if I walk in running shoes). BUT, my foot has been getting bad again. It could be the increased running--not only am I running 3-4 times a week, but I recently started interval training more seriously, thanks to Kirsty--or it could be the use of non-Crocs (aka Dansko Clogs, recommended by other PF sufferers). Or, it could have something to do with my night splint not working as well as it used to. This is what my night splint looks like:


















To make this a better story, I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent here. Just over a month ago, I was entering some data in the form of numbers into my computer at work. I have a laptop that doesn't have a number pad on the right like many keyboards, so I had to use the row of numbers across the top. While stretching my fingers from one number to another, I started getting a tingly feeling in my left wrist that was quite uncomfortable. It got worse and worse. It was uncomfortable even while I was typing letters! Which is particularly bad since I'm at a stage in my research when I need to type a lot. It was right before I was going to go to a conference in Colorado, so I hoped that a bit of time off from extensive typing might cure me. It didn't. Turns out Jesse had a wrist splint around from when he was having wrist problems, so now I wear it whenever I type (including now). As uncomfortable as it is, it does help. I can type, and when I'm "bad" and type a couple of sentences without taking the time to put the splint on, my wrist stays fairly comfortable. Here's what it looks like:













Around the same time I started having wrist problems, Jesse started having problems with his right foot! Jesse is also a runner, and even ran a marathon earlier this year. His problems were more with the front of his foot, but that's how my PF started too. Instead of waiting 1.5 years to see a doctor as I did, Jesse waited only a few weeks. The doctor took X-rays and sent him to a podiatrist. In between, Jesse decided to finally try Crocs (since walking barefoot around the apartment hurt his foot). This past week, the Crocs arrived the same day Jesse got the verdict: he has sesamoiditis--one of his sesamoid bones has swelled to twice the size of the other one! Ouch! The only way to help it apparently is to not bend your foot, so Jesse was prescribed a rigid medical shoe. Oh well--he can still wear a Croc on his other foot. So, here's what he looks like now (he has to wear this shoe whenever he's not sleeping, driving or showering... when he's driving, he wears a rigid hiking boot):













Back to my night splint. I guess I need to back up a bit... I finally picked up the frequency of my running earlier this year when I bought a night splint for my foot (the idea of the splint is to keep my foot flexed (~90 degrees), providing a passive stretch through my plantar fascia (and achilles and calf) the whole night). My doctor had recommended I wear one, but the pharmacist at my HMO looked at me strangely when I said I needed to get one and said they don't have anything like that. That discouraged me and since my PT didn't say anything about night splints I didn't try to find one for 9 months or so. But one of my resolutions earlier this year was to try harder to get over the PF, so I did a lot of online browsing and finally found the splint above, which I've been wearing every night for months now. I should say, some nights I wake up in such discomfort, I rip off the splint and chuck it on the floor. But most nights I tolerate it the whole time I'm in bed. However, the straps have stretched a lot, and I have to adjust the splint a lot to get it not to slip down my leg too much... if it's too loose, my foot doesn't stay flexed; too tights and I wake up in agony and rip it off. Lately though, no matter what I do, I wake up with my foot at a 45-degree angle. No good. So, a couple of days ago, I ordered a bigger splint (bigger is better?) that looked like it would do a solid job of keeping my foot flexed. It arrived this morning, much sooner than I expected. I haven't tried sleeping in it, but already I find it mightily uncomfortable. We'll see how tonight goes! Here's a photo of it.













So, dear reader, stay tuned to read more of my ongoing competition with Jesse to be the most pathetic! Will Jesse try to outdo me by upgrading to a surgical boot (if the shoe doesn't work in a few weeks, he'll likely have to do that... and after that comes a plaster cast!)? Will my massive splint heal me finally? Will Jesse get fat from not running? (Poor Jesse--he is worried about gaining weight, but so far he's actually lost weight... possibly muscle). Will Jesse and I ever be healthy simultaneously so we can run together? And so much more...

Thanks for reading about my misery ;-)

Life "to do" list

I've spent a bit of time this weekend going through papers--chucking what I no longer want to keep, and sorting that which I do. I found this list of things I want to do in my life that I think I wrote some time early in graduate school. Thankfully I've been able to check a few things off. Here it is:

- Take a first aid course (not yet)

- Ballroom dance/swing classed (done)

- Kilimanjaro (not yet; I think I mean "climb Kilimanjaro")

- Ph.D. (done)

- Visit New Zealand (not yet)

- Visit Australia (not yet)

- Hike the Otter Creek Trail (not yet)

- Retrain a thoroughbred off the track (not yet... I have helped retrain thoroughbreds off the track, but since I wrote this list after I'd done that, I'm guessing younger Samantha wouldn't let current Samantha count that. I meant to get a horse fresh off the track and "completely" retrain it)

- Publish a photograph (not yet, I don't think. Once, in graduate school, someone told me that a photograph I had taken of a horse and rider going over a jump was being used in print advertising (a poster) for the Hoofers Riding Club, but I think they were thinking of someone else's photo and I never saw the advert myself )

- See Laura v. Reumont (that's Laura Silverman, nee von Reumont, a good friend of mine when I was a teenager. She lives in the Cayman Islands now, and this "to do" was to see her *again,* since clearly I've seen her before)

- Make a piece of furniture/wood object (done--I make a (very nice and very practical, I think) CD-sized "bookshelf" for Jesse for Christmas one year... I've added a couple photos of it below)

- Have a vegetable garden--organic (done, and I hope to do this again some day, when I have a house again)

- Date someone for more than 1 year & enjoy it! (ha ha... done... I guess that dates this list to before July 2000 then, since that's when I started dating Jesse)

- Voluntary Simplicity (hmmn. Not sure if I can say I've done this. And funny, I just saw an article about this in the NY Times this week. I guess being a graduate student would be "involuntary simplicity"? I'll have to think more about this and see what the "rules" are for Voluntary Simplicity)

- Learn to SCUBA dive (not yet)

- Learn to sail (not yet)

- Run a 1/2+ marathon (not yet... got up to 10 km races)

- Touch Antarctica (not yet... may have to save this for retirement, but maybe there won't be any ice on Antarctica then, so that won't be the same)

- Develop film myself (no... and possibly never will. Guess I didn't see digital coming :-)

Well, that's the list as it was (with my current comments in parentheses). Wonder what my "to do" list would look like now? I'm on too much of a roll sorting/chucking papers now to stop and think about it. Maybe I'll put making that list on my to do list... hee hee.

My Earth Day 2008 Project

The way I have the title, you might think that this is an annual event. Well, it isn't yet. This was my first Earth Day project, inspired by my own blog post (see previous). On Earth Day (April 22nd), I bought 10 reusable grocery bags (nice black ones from my local independent food store), took them to work the next day, and left them in a pile with this note:

Free bag*

*with a catch

Giving you a free reusable bag is my Earth Day 2008 project. The real answer to “paper or plastic” at the grocery store should be “neither” as both are bad for the environment and sustainability. Non-renewable petroleum (fossil fuel) is an ingredient in plastic bags and paper bags, aside from requiring trees to be felled for their production (because recycled paper cannot be made into a strong enough bag for groceries), require more fossil fuel to be transported than do plastic bags. Reusable bags, like the ones provided here, are stronger than either plastic or paper and can typically hold more groceries.

The catch:
• If you take a bag, you must use it in place of a plastic or paper bag to bag you purchases at a grocery or other store. You cannot only use the bag to carry stuff (like beach towels/gym clothes/lunch) around in.

• I suggest storing it in your car/truck/minivan so that you will have it when you go to the store. Remembering to take it in with you will probably take a bit of practice but you must endeavor if you accept one of these bags
  
• You may get 5 cents off your purchase for each reusable bag you use!
  

Please take only one for now
Samantha

Things went only okay the first day. One person took a bag and told me that she had been using paper bags because she thought they were better than plastic but now she knew better (score 1 for me and the Earth). At the end of the day, I took the bags and sign away in part because I didn't want the janitor to help himself overnight (he has a reputation for helping himself to things in our break room... sodas, candy etc.) and in part because I thought my project had failed miserably. Jesse's grandfather had died late the night before, and I mention this seemingly random bit of information because it might help you understand why I was feeling a bit despondent in general (remember too that I am generally agitated about the state of the world, as alluded to in my previous post, and I haven't even mentioned my career/family agitation but it's there too). But, I also understand the nature of my coworkers (of which I currently have 14 in addition to "the boss") a bit and knew that they were just being a bit hesitant about jumping in. The next day, one person asked me what happened to the bags and said she had wanted to take one but hadn't got around to it--I gave her two (she's just an undergraduate, so I considered it "early intervention"). Then, a couple of days later, I put four of the bags out again, and three were quickly snapped up. Today, put the remaining four bags out and one has been taken. No reports yet of people actually using them, but here's hoping.